Up until recently, one of Chaw Kalyar’s tasks at the Myanmar Embassy in Berlin consisted of providing assistance to fellow nationals stripped of their citizenship by their country’s former military rulers.
But today, the diplomat finds herself facing the same predicament.
Along with two other colleagues, Ms. Kalyar, who holds the rank of third secretary at the Embassy, has joined a civil disobedience movement against the junta that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in February.
“At the beginning of February, I despaired of the coup, whereas since 2015 Myanmar was on the right track,” said Ms. Kalyar. “History was repeating itself. “I decided to do something,” added the 49-year-old diplomat. “We have to take part in that movement to overtake the coup.”
Ms. Kalyar, who as a high school student in 1988, took part in protests against the then military regime.
She said on March 4, she and two colleagues joined the movement and posted on Facebook a message of support to the protests back home. Less than a week later, the trio were fired and their passports withdrawn.
